On a Sunday in December 1941 Bill was taking a Sunday ride in Sioux City Iowa with his parents. Suddenly the announcement came over the car radio that the Japanese had attacked Pearl Harbor. The first question was probably “Where’s Pearl Harbor?” Soon Pearl was the most famous harbor in the world.
Bill was 18 when he joined the Marines in May 1943. Always dreaming of being a paratrooper, he was thrilled when he found out that the Corps had such a unit! Bill went to San Diego during basic training, and after that he did indeed train to be a paratrooper. He jumped 13 times before the Marines thought that most of the other parachutist’s time would better be served doing something else. Things were changing in the Pacific and the need for parachutists was waning because most of the fighting was in the dense jungle. This included Bill, who was assigned to an amphibious halftrack.
Bill was assigned to the 5th Marine Division and soon found himself training, this time on the Big Island of Hawaii. After training on the Big Island, Bill’s next stop was a dot of land that smelled of sulpher in the Pacific that would known soon world wide as Iwo Jima.
Early on the morning of February 19th, 1945 he was in his amphibious halftrack heading towards the beach at Iwo Jima. Bill says that he was 6 minutes behind the first wave. When the halftracks front door was lowered, all the Marine’s could see was a very high wall of black sand in front of them. Leaving the halftrack, the Marines went forward, only retrieving their halftrack days later.
Bill and his fellow Marines quickly dug foxholes in the fine black sand, which was a feat in itself! Later, Bill saw the raising of both the first and second American flags over Iwo Jima. Most thought that the battle was over, but there were many more weeks of fighting, as the Japanese had constructed miles of tunnels underneath the island, popping up constantly picking off Marines.
Once, Bill was diving into a pillbox to escape a mortar attack by the Japanese. He landed hard and told his buddy that thought that he had been hit. Gingerly Bill felt around and looked at his hand. There was no blood! Bill searched further and brought out a hot piece of mortar shell that had embedded itself into his belt webbing! It hurt like everything but the webbing had saved him from serious injury. His only regret was that he didn’t save the piece of hot steel!
Bill thankfully made it through the Iwo campaign without too much further injury. Another time he was standing on his halftrack when a bullet whizzed by too close. He saw a Japanese soldier running away after apparently taking the shot at Bill. Other nearby Marines saw this and took out the soldier handedly.
After the battle, Bill went back to Hawaii for rest and further training, eventually finding himself doing occupation duty in Japan after the war. He got out of the Marines in 1947.
Once back in the states Bill married, began an equipment rental business, which his son still runs in Dallas. Bill proudly wears his Iwo Jima veteran cap. Not long ago, a man stopped him and exclaimed “You saved my life!” Bill was puzzled but then the man said that he was in one of the first damaged planes to land at Iwo after a bombing run over Japan. The island was still hot, with Japanese still mortaring the landing strip. The man credits Bill and the other Marines with keeping the Japanese at bay long enough so that his plane and crew were saved.
Bill says that going to the WWII Memorial will bring back memories of those days during WWII, both good and bad. He did his duty, what was asked of him, and certainly exemplifies the ordinary Marine, doing extraordinary things on Iwo Jima.
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